"Small and Sophisticated" Thanksgiving Menu

Got the 'Small and Sophisticated' menu from epicurious.

COURSE I
Cranberry Kir Royale substituted this w/ apple cider.
Foie Gras-Stuffed Dates substituted this w/ light cream cheese stuffed dates w/ chives for topping.
Celery Bisque with Stilton Toasts


Table setting for our thanksgiving dinner - celery bisque w/ toast served, dish of stuffed dates on the side.


COURSE II
Recommended white wine - 2003 Far Niente Chardonnay, Napa Valley
Turkey Breast Roulade with Crimini, Porcini, and Pancetta Our turkey w/ the ties intact.

Recommended red wine - 2003 Joseph Drouhin Vosne-Romanée
Orange-Glazed Carrot Ribbons
Creamy Mashed Potatoes with Goat Cheese and Fresh Sage


Haricots Verts, Roasted Fennel, and Shallots - We dropped this.
Cranberry-Ginger Chutney - Was good!

COURSE III
Frozen Pumpkin Mousse with Walnut-Toffee Crunch - my best creation!

Ayurvedic(organic) Kadha for stopping coughing

All ingredients to be added according to the cook's judgement. The function of this kadha is to soothe a throat that has coughed for an extended time period. It gives instant relief and stops the coughing for about an hour or two. However, this concoction is not to be consumed in gallons. It has high heat content, high sugar content.

Magic potion ingredients - 1 inch Ginger grated/sliced, 4-5 black peppers, 1 inch cinnamon stick, Jaggery to taste, 2-3 cloves. Boil all ingredients in 1.5 cup of water until the liquid turns a putrid brown. Make the victim drink while hot. Not scalding hot, but when soothing hot.

Credit for this recipe goes to my aunt who awed me one day when I was made to drink a cup of this ghastly looking hot beverage. My coughing ceased. I was sold.

Vinegar cha loncha!

Raw mangoes, made into 2 inch cubes.
Garlic - whole 'kalya'.
Dried California raisins
Dried dates - small bits of.
Dried red chillies
Ginger - sliced
Black pepper - whole
Sugar - as much as the mangoes.

Cook the mangoes. Drain. Make 1.5 tari syrup of sugar and water, add salt to taste. Add the rest of the ingredients except the dried chillies. Add them after the mixture has cooled.

Credit for this recipe goes to my maternal aunt, who had so far kept this recipe under wraps quite successfully.

Teelachi chatni - Nagpuri style

  

Bhakri barobar khaychi chatNi.

Ingredients -
1. Sesame seeds
2. Gul(jaggery)
3. Tamarind paste
4. Ground peanuts
5. Salt to taste
6. Chilli powder
7. Cummin powder

Procedure -
Add mustard seeds, Asafoetida to hot oil(2-3 spoonfull) and add it hot the pre-made mixture of the above ingredients. The mixture would make about 1.5 cups.

Notes - This chutney is high in its heat content(not taste wise) and is therefore consumed in winters. Eat in moderation to avoid upset stomachs. This is one more of my mother's amazing dishes that bowled my husband over. My husband is not a bhakri eater, but after this chutney, I can see myself making more bhakris than I did in the last 5 years of our married lives. Incidentally, this was also my father's favorite chutney.

Lamb roast (shank) with serrano-vinegar sauce

Instead of serving it with risotto, I made Indian style pulav. In the serrano vinegar sauce, I substituted red wine vinegar with apple cider vinegar - thought a fruity touch to the sauce will taste nice with the roast lamb. And the lamb was roasted in red wine (Cabernet Sauvignon) and chicken broth bath.

Courtesy - Bobby Flay

Pineapple Salsa

Pictures speak a thousand words. So be it. Laziness has reached its limits.
Aim - To replenish the diminishing quantities of pineapple salsa without leaving house.

  

Step 1 - Steal ingredients' list from the label.
 

Step 2 - Collect ingredients. Garlic pesto replaced garlic cloves which I was out of.
Left to Right(Standing), Pineapple, Fire roasted tomatoes, jalapenos, garlic pest.
Left to Right(Sitting), Dead looking cilantro, green chillies(spg?), 1/2 onion.
 

Step 3 - Chop-em, open cans.
 

Step 4 - Chop in mixie
 

Step 5 - What happened to the rest of the can of crushed pineapple - fruit salad!
 

Lesson- Fire roasted tomatoes get a thumbs up. Adding raw onion if the salsa won't be finished in 1 sitting, is a bad idea. It is bad for the salsa, it is bad for the refrigerator. It is bad for spousal appeasement.

Almond Cookies

Ingredients

Makes about 20 coookies

Almond paste(roasted almonds -in this case store bought- crushed in a mixer) 1/2 cup

Roasted almond pieces 1/2 cup

All purpose flour 1 cup

Sugar 1 cup

Butter 1 stick

Baking powder 1 teaspoon

Pinch of salt

Preparation

Mix almond paste, sugar and butter well. Add to it, the almond pieces. Sift flour over this mixture and keep beating with an electric beater. Add 1 egg slowly as well until the mixture gets the consistency of a dough without kneading. Keep the dough in refrigerator for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes, take out the dough and make 20 small dough balls and place them 2 inches apart on a buttered cookie sheet. Bake at 375'F for 15 minutes or until golden brown!

You can see I didn't place my dough balls 2 inches apart making for 1 huge cookie made from all cookies fusing with eachother.

Baked egglant

 

Details later. Chef Mahesh's exotic dish from his birthday baking books. 

Invention-III Spicy Buttons

Mushrooms are a fungi that I've developed a taste for because of a house mate who cooked the best mushrooms with cummin and hot spices. This recipe specifically avoids those spices in order to not offend that supreme dish with a subpar preparation of my own.

 
Ingredients-
~1 pound brown mushrooms
1 medium sized onion
3-4 cloves of garlic
chives
basil
2 tablespoons of cream
pepper
salt
vodka(optional)
peas to add color

Preparation-
Slice washed mushrooms no thinner than 3-4mm. Julienne cut onions. Slice garlic so that they can be easily removed by the non-gourmet. Heat oil in a pot that cen be covered, add onions and garlic and saute until onions turn transparent and its edges a little brown. Add cut chives in it(yes, do it). Add ground pepper generously. Stir, sit back. For 5 seconds. At this point for some more heat, you can add either paprika or someother heat adding ingredient. I added 'El Pato' yesterday. You are ready to add mushrooms. Instead of water, to add an extra tang, I tied up plain yogurt in a cloth and drained its water for about 2-3 hours. I used this water to cook my mushrooms. Cook it covered for a while, then take off lid to let the excess water evaporate. Add the peas(if frozen, wash in warm water) and salt. Now twiddle thumbs. Once the water is gone, add the cream and about a handul of basil. This dish is high on herbs and spices as you can tell. Don't worry about the basil, it will lose a little bit of its aroma with the cream. Cook on low heat until it amuses you. For a sharp tastes, vodka(1 shot equivalent) can be added right after one adds cream.

This dish goes well with plain rice as it is spicy. 

Mango Shrikhand

A friend's recipe, haven't tried it out yet.

Mountain Head Yoghurt: 32 Oz
Mango Pulp: 16 0z
Elaichi: 1 tsp
Sugar: 1 cup (or to taste)
Garnish: 1 tbsp sliced pistachios

Put the yoghurt in a thin cloth, tie the cloth tightly and hang it some place so that the water can drain out. Overnight the water should drain out completely. [tip: you can try and put some weight on the bundle as well]

Next day morning, before mixing all the ingredients, strain the mango pulp in a similar way to remove most of the liquid.

Then, grind the dry yoghurt, mango pulp, elaichi and sugar. Shrikhand is ready ! Top the shrikhand with some dry fruits.

Servings 6 to 8.

Walnut Raisin Biscotti

  

The recipe was seen today morning on KQED. Check the details here.

The photo is of chef Mahesh kneading.

  

Saboodana vada like poppers with a spinach dip.

Spinach Dip
Ingredients-
- fat free sour cream
- spinach
- fromage du blanc
- salt
- chives
- basil
- balsamic vinegar

Preparation- Mix uncooked spinach and the rest of the ingredients in a mixer. Turn it on. Done. I garnished with walnuts.

Sabudana vada poppers

Ingredients-

- saboodana/sago
- peanut powder
- green chillies
- salt and equal amount of sugar
- baked potatoes enough to hold the sago together when made into patties.

For the cover- egg white, bread crumbs, cumin seeds

Preparation-
Wet all the sago. Leave just enough water that it comes to about 0.5cm from the bottom of the bowl you wet your sago in. Set aside for longest of times depending really on the quality of sago. Best ones need about 30 minutes. I used mine after 2 nights. You can tell it is done if the sago feels soft through and through to touch. The better of the sagos will not gather inspite of wetting and will have distinct sago balls instead of becoming one mass of carbohydrate. Add the peanut powder(this powder is to be a loose powder as well, not crushed to be anywhere close to peanut butter), cut green chillies, salt, sugar, baked and mashed potatoes(only if the sago has become too dry or to act as a filler when you fall short of sago). Roll them into patties shaped liked your favorite patty shape. Now, this is where I divert from the standard Indian frying. Sago soaks in a lot of oil and pan fry doesn't work. Hence, I rolled my poppers/patties in egg white then in bread crumb-cumin mix and then deep fried them. Traditionally these are to be eaten when hot with a cold peanut-yogurt chutney. I had a tonne of spinach at home, so I opted for a cool spinach dip. Enjoy, get fat.

Kaju Katli by Jason Balkman

He calls it Cashew Nut Fudge. He writes-

Cashew Nut Fudge:
=================
3/2 cups unsalted cashews
3/2 cups boiling water
2 tbsp milk
2/3 cup zuccherro
1 tbsp ghee
1 tsp vanilla xtract
several sheets silver leaf

Pour boiling water over cashews
in a bowl & soak 1 hr. Grease
an 8x8" pan or line with wax
or parchment paper.

Drain cashews and food process
w/milk until smooth. stir in
zuccherro. melt ghee in a skillet
and add processed cashew paste
and cook 15-20 minutes, constantly
stirring. The paste will get
very thick and a little unmanageable.
Stop heating at this point.

Stir in vanilla xtract and lay
evenly into pan (easier said than
done. i soaked a spoon in hot water
to assist, otherwise the nutpaste
clings to everything). Cool 10
minutes or more. Press silver leaf
onto surface (also easier said than
done. silver leaf is difficult to
work with. i also used a little water
to get it to adhere better to the
nutpaste).

Cut fudge into diamond shapes using a wet
knife.